Ursula Oppens plays Frederic Rzewski's Friendship

Описание: PianoSpheres – Explores music of our time.
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Piano Spheres Presents
FREDERIC RZEWSKI: AN APPRECIATION
April 16, 2022
The Colburn School, Los Angeles

FRIENDSHIP
Friendship was written in the spring of 2020 and finished on August 5. It was of course the period of the big lockdown. We couldn’t see our friends or play chamber music, but composers could write music and pianists could learn new pieces. I was planning to play it in a program of Chopin Nocturnes interspersed with short Elliott Carter works. Of course, Rzewski was a protégé and close friend of Carter’s and he spoke a great deal about how much he loved Rubinstein’s recordings of the Nocturnes. The work is in three movements, and Frederic thought of it as somewhat analogous to a Haydn Sonata. (U.O.)

URSULA OPPENS
Ursula Oppens, a legend among American pianists, is widely admired particularly for her original and perceptive readings of new music, but also for her knowing interpretations of the standard repertoire. No other artist alive today has commissioned and premiered more new works for the piano that have entered the permanent repertoire.
With five Grammy nominations to her credit, Ms. Oppens established her reputation early on with a classic recording of Frederic Rzewski’s The People United Will Never Be Defeated. She has released Piano Songs, music by Meredith Monk, with pianist Bruce Brubaker; Winging It: Piano Music of John Corigliano; Oppens Plays Carter (complete Carter piano works); Piano Music of Our Time; Keys to the City, (complete Picker piano music); and, with pianist Jerome Lowenthal, Visions de l’Amen by Messiaen and Debussy’s En blanc et noir.
Over the years, Ms. Oppens has premiered works by such leading composers as John Adams, Luciano Berio, William Bolcom, Anthony Braxton, Elliott Carter, John Corigliano, Anthony Davis, John Harbison, Julius Hemphill, David Hertzberg, Laura Kaminsky, Tania Leon, György Ligeti, Erik Lundborg, Witold Lutoslawski, Harold Meltzer, Meredith Monk, Conlon Nancarrow, Tobias Picker, Bernard Rands, Frederic Rzewski, Allen Shawn, Alvin Singleton, Joan Tower, Lois V Vierk, Amy Williams, Christian Wolff, Amnon Wolman, and Charles Wuorinen.

As an orchestral guest soloist, Ms. Oppens has performed with the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the American Composers Orchestra, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), and the orchestras of Chicago, Cleveland, San Francisco, and Milwaukee. Abroad, she has appeared with such ensembles as the Berlin Symphony, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Deutsche Symphonie, the Scottish BBC, and the London Philharmonic Orchestras. In addition to collaborating with the Cassatt Quartet, she has performed chamber music with the Arditti, Cassatt, JACK, Juilliard, and Pacifica quartets.
Ursula Oppens teaches at Mannes College, The New School, and is a Distinguished Professor of Music at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City. In 2019, Ms. Oppens was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from The New England Conservatory.